Flowmotion would have been better if it, ironically, flowed better. It felt way to situational, and I didn't like how you needed a wall or specific parts of the environment to utilize it. The whole mechanic just felt forced and unnecessary, just to add flavor to an already tasty game.

I HATE the drop system. If there's one thing I hate in gaming, it's time limits. More than once I had a boss nearly defeated when my gauge ran dry. Infuriating.

Dream Eaters were alright. They added a little extra depth to the ability system, but the whole "feeding/playing with" thing was nothing but a monotonous grindthat lost it's appeal after the first handful of times.

I would also have to rank Dream Eaters at the bottom of my enemy list in the series.

That said, the game was still phenomenal and I'm not one of those people that has an instant bias against time travel, like so many seem to have.

I don't have a bias against time travel that is used well. They just used it and made it absurdly complex. And I'd rather not have those huge lands again unless there is a reason to it. I really don't like how even though the lands were huge, you could jump from one side to the other thanks to flowmotion. What ever happened to you playing as an equivalent to a human?

Well they were in a dream. And "playing as an equivalent to a human" hasn't really seemed to be on their agenda since KH2 where you could dash 30 feet at an enemy, or perform insanely long air combos. What an odd gripe to have with a franchise that revolves around magic, fantasy, and incredible feats.

That's one of the reasons I'm not as fond of kh2, though. You mash X and Sora does all these fancy moves and boom, the monsters are dead. Any other game, and it takes more than that to do any fancy moves, which usually rely on magic.

KH2 and 3D are the only ones that are way out there in flashy moves compared to the other games. 3D makes it worse, though since the flashy moves barely even do any damage.

I meant to say playing as the kh equivalent of a human, also. What Sora (and Riku in 3D) is, is not a kh equivalent of a human.

I'll admit that I've only played three of the Kingdom Hearts games, the first game, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Birth by Sleep. Out of those I'd say that I like the first one the most and Birth by Sleep the least.

I'll admit that I've only played three of the Kingdom Hearts games, the first game, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Birth by Sleep. Out of those I'd say that I like the first one the most and Birth by Sleep the least.

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Why havent you played Dream Drop Distance? And you can play CoM with the HD collection now.

I'll admit that I've only played three of the Kingdom Hearts games, the first game, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Birth by Sleep. Out of those I'd say that I like the first one the most and Birth by Sleep the least.

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Why havent you played Dream Drop Distance? And you can play CoM with the HD collection now.

I'll admit that I've only played three of the Kingdom Hearts games, the first game, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Birth by Sleep. Out of those I'd say that I like the first one the most and Birth by Sleep the least.

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Why havent you played Dream Drop Distance? And you can play CoM with the HD collection now.

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I don't have a 3DS and I don't want to get one.

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I got a 3DS just for DDD. 3rd best KH game and best KH handheld imo. But if you dont play DDD you are going to be totally lost for KH3.

I'll admit that I've only played three of the Kingdom Hearts games, the first game, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Birth by Sleep. Out of those I'd say that I like the first one the most and Birth by Sleep the least.

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Huh. I thought I had the most obscure opinion of the KH series here.

Anyway, the HD collection will certainly help you out with Re:CoM and 358/2 Days. You'll have played both of the games in the next collection.

Find an alternative to play KH 3D. It's really good, and very essential.

I dont understand why people think the time traveling is confusing. Because too me...it's not.

You can only travel back in time if you are at the current place in time. (i.e. I can't travel back in time to meet Adam in Eve because I wasn't there).

Master Xehanort was an extremely smart genius who wanted to live forever so he strategically placed himself in positions throughout his life (and others') that would allow him to go back and manipulate his own life if need be.

You can only use time travel ability for a short while, so if you don't get your shit done fast everything goes back to where it came from.

And it would take much more than a few sentences to sum up the plot of DDD!

Sora and Riku took the Mark of Mastery exam in order to become full fledged Keyblade Masters. While traveling through sleeping worlds and trying to wake them up, Sora ends up being captured by the new Organization 13, which consists of Saix, Xigbar and multiple Xehanorts from different time periods, and is forced to become the 13th member. Riku ends up saving him and becomes the official Keyblade Master because of it, and they all find out that Xehanort wants his 13 darks to fight their 7 lights in order to make the X-blade again and get to Kingdom Hearts. Axel becomes Lea, his "somebody", and gets a Keyblade.

Sora and Riku took the Mark of Mastery exam in order to become full fledged Keyblade Masters. While traveling through sleeping worlds and trying to wake them up, Sora ends up being captured by the new Organization 13, which consists of Saix, Xigbar and multiple Xehanorts from different time periods, and is forced to become the 13th member. Riku ends up saving him and becomes the official Keyblade Master because of it, and they all find out that Xehanort wants his 13 darks to fight their 7 lights in order to make the X-blade again and get to Kingdom Hearts. Axel becomes Lea, his "somebody", and gets a Keyblade.

1. Kingdom Hearts 1: The original da best, I guess it's more nostalgia glasses than anything, it's not even my absolute favorite in story or gameplay but I couldn't bear to put it at number 3 like it would probably end up otherwise. So many memories and even to this day still an absolute wonderful game. (Whoa, and we're less than a month away from 1.5? Excitement level over 9000 faster than Sonic can say "YOU'RE TOO SLOW!)

2. Birth By Sleep: Pinnacle of gameplay in my opinion, and one of the most interesting stories told in the KH series. Whenever people roll their eyes at the handheld games I can't help but proudly hold this game up. I really hope it gets a new chance to shine in a second HD collection because it deserves it and then some. The Deck Command system absolutely perfected the battle system, allowing the strategy of CoM with the fun of the original system. The story was great as well, I loved seeing the story of Terra, Ven, and Aqua. It does have it's issues though, mostly technical limitations of the PSP like the horribly, horribly empty areas. Of course that's been a problem since day 1, KH1 just had the advantage of taking the time to give a half-ass explanation WHY areas that should be densely populated like Traverse Town and Agrabah were ghost towns instead.

3. Dream Drop Distance: Take the incredible gameplay from BbS, bring back Sora and Riku, and get really daring with your story, and that's the recipe for 3D here. I loved this game, just as much as BbS, but I did have a few additional complaints, mainly the fact that your Dream Eaters are your main source of commands, which really stunted the growth of Sora and Riku in battle until you took the time to play with these little guys. Cute side content and I enjoyed the idea, but Commands should not have been THIS closely connected to them. The story also got a bit weird, I don't like adding

4. Re. Chain of Memories: Surprise! I actually really love this game. It's one of the best told stories in the series (along with the best representation of the Organization in the series) and the gameplay, while it faltered a bit, is actually a ton of fun once you get used to it. I love the strategy involved, and really once you learn great sleights, it's a lot like BbS/3D's gameplay except less refined, which is what I've always thought of it as.

5. Kingdom Hearts 2: Ah, I remember the outrage whenever IGN gave KH2 a 7.8. A few years and a bunch of better KH games way, I actually understand why. It's one of the weaker of the KH games, the gameplay is okay, but shallow, reaction commands are a cool add on but aside from one instance I can't ever think of a moment where I had to time it rather than just mash Triangle. Drive forms were neat but overpowered all to hell, and this definitely has one of the weaker stories of the series. The Organization just didn't come off as a very menacing threat, and aside from the big bads, I didn't even see the POINT of a lot of them. The world selection was pretty great though, even with musical Atlantica and not Johnny Depp Jack Sparrow, and the gummi ship was a blast, but ehhhh.... Overall I just found KH2 weak.

6. 358/2 Days: Ah, these last two on the list... I like to think of them both as polar opposites. They're both strong where the other's weak. Days is definitely it's strongest in it's story. The poor characterization of Roxas in 2 is quickly overshadowed by this game and his relationship with Axel and Xion. This game also has the advantage of making the Roxas segment in 2 that much more powerful, in all honesty this game should have come first. And I'm glad it's in the HD Collection at least in cutscene form. It's weakness though, is definitely gameplay. The mission structure isn't that great, and while the Panel system is neat, the gameplay just isn't that engaging, and limited usage of spells can be extremely annoying if you spam Cure spells like I do. The world selection was also one of the worst, holy crap talk about repetitive. At least CoM and Coded have the excuse of JUST rehashing KH1. Days just had a flat out poor selection in terms of repetitiveness. I did find it cool that The World That Never Was was the hub world though, the idea of the place we worked so hard to get to in KH2 being home in this was a neat juxtaposition.

7. Re. Coded: The gameplay is strong in this one. Very strong actually, one of the most enjoyable to play in all honesty. It takes the Command Deck system from BbS and does a great job with it, and some of the gimmicks of the worlds are INCREDIBLY fun. (Olympus Coliseum, I'm looking at you!) So why is it last on my list? Holy weak story Batman! This is the one entry of the series I would say is COMPLETELY skippable. Seriously, I don't think a single aspect of this story is important. Especially not important enough to warrant a whole game. It was dull, a SECOND retread of KH1 (although the data twists were nice) and just not needed. Which is sad, since it was such a blast to play.

Why does everyone dislike 358/2 Days so much? In my opinion it was the best handheld game and it was neat to play the game from the organizations perspective. And the relationship between Roxas and Axel is probably one of my favourites in the series. As for Birth By Sleep, I never felt attached or cared about the characters, and playing the same worlds as three different characters got really repetitive and stale for me. I also felt like the bosses in Dream Drop Distance were really annoying, but that might just be me.

1) Birth by Sleep - Best story, best battle system, and 3 of the most awesome and relevant characters ever brought to the series. It was also great to see younger versions of some of the Organization members and see where they came from. Especially loved the way you had to actually USE the commands to combine them and make new ones.

2) Re:Chain of Memories - The GBA version was the first KH game I ever owned. Beat it 4 times, then the PS2 remake came out, which I beat twice more. Absolutely love the battle system. It's so deep and challenging. The story is fantastic too, and the boss battles are amazing, especially when they decide to get clever in the PS2 version and rip the cards away from you mid-battle, fighting Zexion and Marluxia.

3) Dream Drop Distance - I was really unsure where to rank this. I enjoy the combat and the story, flowmotion was very welcome, I like about half the aspects of fighting alongside Dream Eaters, and I actually enjoyed the drop system, except for when it makes you restart a boss fight from the very beginning after a drop. However, it took ENTIRELY to long to actually get to any story at all, until it was unceremoniously dumped on you at the very end of the game. The worlds were even more devoid of life than ever, I can't even begin to count the number of times I got lost in the ridiculously huge environments, and the battle system wasn't deep in the least. They gave you absolutely no reason to even try out the vast majority of the commands, and having to mollycoddle a Dream Eater to get the most out of its abilities was completely unnecessary.

4) Kingdom Hearts II - The game was REALLY long, had TONS of worlds (most of which you had to visit twice), the bosses were fun and the combat was fast. This was also the first time they introduced a journal that kept track of all your new additions and collections, and really streamlined things. However, with the exception of fighting Xigbar at the end, the combat was WAY too easy, even on Proud mode. There was absolutely no consquence for spamming the crap out of the reaction commands. The Organization members, unlike CoM, were indistinct and fairly unmemorable. I can't tell you HOW many times I used to get Xigbar and Xaldin mixed up. Most of the worlds were done well, with some exceptions. Atlantica was an absolute shock. I would have been more open to it had they not written absolutely TERRIBLE new songs and re-recorded the old ones. The Pride Lands felt like it was barely holding together at all and it had virtually no voice acting outside of Rafiki's lines literally ripped straight out of the movie's audio. (Btw, even I could have done a better impression of Jack Sparrow than the guy who attempted to voice him in Port Royal.) The Gummi ship sections were an improvement over the first game, but still felt complicated and unnecessary. Oh, and the fact that EVERY SINGLE TIME you used Cure, the ENTIRE magic meter had to reload. I miss the segmented meter from KH1.

5) Kingdom Hearts - Yes, it was the first game in the series, but it really hasn't aged well compared to some of the others. Because it's the first, it hasn't had the luxury of being streamlined and refined. The camera was a little painful to use and wasn't very responsive (especially in Monstro's throat) and some of the bosses felt overly difficult, even some of the storyline ones like Ursula. Still, the story's a lot of fun and I love the first three days on Destiny Island.

6) 358/2 Days - As Sonic10122 said, Days and Coded really are polar opposites. Days and Re:coded are basically tied in my opinion, but I'll give Days the slight edge because of the story. Days had an AMAZING story, mostly because of Xion, and her relationship with Roxas and Axel. It was interesting seeing things from the perspective of the Organization, and the panel system was actually pretty cool and forced you to think. But the vast majority of the missions were SO damn tedious and repetitive, the world selection was absolutely terrible (with the exception of Beast's Castle, as Days was its first chronological appearance in the series), and combat was a chore, especially the way you had to stock magic.

7) Re:coded - My biggest complaint with this one is the fact that the storyline is so minimal. Story is such a huge part of the KH series, it's just so disappointing to not have much of a relevant story at all here. Though, it was interesting to play as a data form of Sora and fight against bugs and viruses. The combat was a huge improvement over Days and the upgrade system was really well done. The variation between the worlds was welcome, even if I did have trouble against side-scrolling Maleficent. Oh, and I LOVED who the surprise final boss was.